


Will That Be All?

by DearHeartx



Series: Fictober 2018 [4]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/M, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-18 08:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29980119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DearHeartx/pseuds/DearHeartx
Summary: Oriana argues with Cullen about the best way to handle their newest problem.
Relationships: Lavellan/Solas (Dragon Age)
Series: Fictober 2018 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1802731
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Will That Be All?

**Author's Note:**

> *Trespasser spoilers

Her advisors and Cass—err—Divine Victoria stared at her. The room was deadly silent, even the constant scratching of Josephine’s pen had stopped. She scratched at the nub where her arm suddenly stopped and dropped her eyes, certain of their thoughts. 

“Inquisitor, are you…” Josephine cleared her throat daintily at Lavellan’s returned stare. “I mean to say, is it the best uses of our resources to—”

Lavellan’s stare turned cold and her advisor’s voice stuttered to a halt. “He feels he’s trapped; if Solas knew there were other options, he wouldn’t go through with this. I know it. He’s not—”

Cullen’s hand clasped around her arm. “A word?” 

Flashbulb memories of Solas guiding her through the Frostbacks blurred her vision. By the time she was able to fight back the images she found herself across the hall and in an empty library. Cullen was standing before her, arms rigidly on his hips, eyes cast down.

His stance worried her. She’d been counting on Cullen’s ever-present support. He’d been a stalwart force for her throughout the entire ordeal with Corypheus and he’d even helped her cope with Solas’ absence. He had stumbled upon her in the rotunda in the early morning after the celebration. He had stepped gingerly over Varric’s drunkenly unconscious form in the doorway, but quickened his step when he had realized she’d been crying. He didn’t ask why; anyone who had been paying attention would’ve known. Instead he pulled her from Solas’ desk chair to his chaise lounge and held her as she cried, whispering calming nonsense against her temple, ruffling wisps of her hair. The sun rose as her sobbing began to ebb, as her bones began to settle into Cullen’s strong yet gentle embrace, as he whispered her name over and over, his breath warming her ear.

“Orianna…,” his words echoed the memory, but his voice was heavy with disappointment instead of laced with the subtleties of desire.

She raised her eyes to meet his gaze. “Cullen, please don’t start.” 

“No! I’ve sat back long enough. I’ve watched as he—”

She started back toward the door, not willing to listen to his lecture. What business was it of his, anyway? As she opened it, his hand pushed it closed again, pulling the handle from her grasp. She turned to face him, bristling, but was caught unawares when his hands were still pressed against the door, his arms caging her.

“Listen to me, Ori,” His voice softened. His forehead dipped against hers and she found herself allowing it with baited breath. “I watched as he dragged you along, made you vie for every scrap of attention he tossed your way.”

She opened her mouth to argue, but he pressed his forehead gently against hers and continued. “He disparaged your culture at every turn, going so far to even remove your vallaslin.” Cullen reached up to stroke where the faded red marks had graced her cheek, but Ori slapped it away before he touched her. She pushed away from the door and out from Cullen’s caged arms.

“How dare you! You weren’t—You don’t—” She pressed the meat of her palms hard into her eyes willing the stinging of coming tears to stop. “You didn’t know him like I did.” Her words were cold and clipped.

“You’re right about one thing. I didn’t know him, but Ori…” Cullen didn’t say anything else until Ori turned away from the window, finally facing him again. “Ori, you didn’t know him either.”

The words washed over her like ice water. She shuddered and wracked her brain for some type of argument. She knew him, of course she knew him. He was the quiet, clever apostate who hated tea and always needed help darning his tunic. He always smelled of parchment, lyrium, and linseed oil from his paints. He loved to argue magical theory with Dorian, but he hated to lose. How could he accuse her of not knowing him?

She startled slightly when she realized Cullen was still talking. “—terror attack at the Temple of Sacred Ashes! He played us all. He wanted us to think he was the unassuming mage who was there to help out of the goodness of his heart, but truly he was there to make sure his plan to commit genocide hadn’t gone awry.”

Ori covered her face with her hands and tried to stifle a groaning yell. “He isn’t genocidal! He feels trapped. He thinks he’s made this monumental mistake and the only way to right this wrong is to start over from scratch, but that isn’t true. I just need a little time to—”

But Cullen was still talking over her. “How can you say he isn’t genocidal?” The Commander’s voice nearly cracked. “His entire plan began when he gave a magical object—an object so powerful that no one should have had it in the first place—to a Tevinter Magister who practices the darkest kinds of Blood Magic, which all resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent mages, templars, and clerics!” 

Ori’s chest was heaving with angry breaths, but her voice was small, barely above a whisper. “He made a mistake.”

Cullen let out a barking laugh. “A mistake?! Ori, a mistake is when I accidentally sent the report meant for Rylen in the Western Approach to Charter in Crestwood. It was inconvenient for two days, but nobody died because of it!”

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Cullen.”

“I want you to acknowledge that Solas is someone we need to be arming ourselves against. He isn’t someone who needs saving. He isn’t even someone who wants saving! He is a radicalized mage who needs to be brought to justice!”

Silence hung uncomfortably in the air between them. Ori turned away, intent on picking at the splintering wood window frame instead of continuing to argue. Her eyes stung, but she hadn’t let Solas see her cry, she sure as hell wasn’t going to let Cullen. As if the though had beckoned him to her side, Cullen crossed the room and stood at her back. His hand ghosted up and down her arm and she hated herself for reveling in the affection.

“Ori, forgive me.”

She sniffled quietly.

“I know you loved him.”

She turned, caving into the need to sob, and buried herself against Cullen’s warm chest, her arms tucked between them as he wrapped her tightly in a hug. He held her for a couple minutes, careful not to say another word, until her shoulders stopped shaking.

“I know you loved him,” Cullen finally repeated, “but maybe you loved a lie.”

She pushed away from his chest, her eyes narrowed cruelly. She breathed in and out twice before finally asking, “Will that be all, Commander? I believe we have a rescue to mount.”


End file.
